INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT WITHIN ENGINEERING ENDEAVORS AFFECTED BY THE PANDEMIC

We know change is the only constant;new changes are ever emerging given the evolution in situations, types of engineering endeavors, requirements, etc. Thus, change management needs to be evolved. The world has recently faced a pandemic, COVID-19, which has presented projects with new and unique challenges. This has forced engineering managers to manage these changes and subsequently look at improvements to existing change management frameworks. The paper identifies some challenges engineering projects face, and the change management approaches used to overcome these during COVID-19. The paper has analyzed projects in the regions of Asia and Australia to derive an updated change management framework for use in unique situations such as pandemics. This paper presents the findings of a literature review focused on change management in enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the paper identifies the drivers, contributors, and moderators associated with change response. It introduces a new holistic change framework, which will aid project managers in facilitating its implementation within their projects. Copyright, American Society for Engineering Management, 2022.

A COMPARISON OF HOW THE TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS INDUSTRY AND THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY'S SUPPLY CHAIN PROCESSES HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY COVID-19 AND HOW ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES COULD BE USED TO ADDRESS THEM

Since it has been established that supply chain management has traditionally been a process-oriented field with not much focus on innovation, in a post-pandemic world, engineering managers have realized that research is needed to identify which aspects of global supply chain management have the greatest need for transformation and could benefit most through the application of entrepreneurial competencies. Along those lines, the authors of this paper have earlier proposed a research model, which includes a mapping between supply chain management process steps and entrepreneurial competencies along with proposed training and organizational changes to facilitate the implementation of a more entrepreneurial approach to supply chain management processes. Using a qualitative, grounded theory approach based on two case studies, the authors focus on two industries. The differences and similarities between the two industries will be compared in this paper;thus, showing engineering managers how the model could be applied to the two different industries considered in this paper. Copyright, American Society for Engineering Management, 2022.

Integrating Hybrid and Remote Workplaces into the Post COVID-19 Engineering Corporate Landscape

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced engineering firms to reconsider the role of traditional, corporate work facilities for their full-time workers. During the height of the pandemic, over 40% of engineering employees worked remotely. This greatly changed their perceptions and expectation about the remote work environment. Over 40% of engineering employees are now willing to “take a salary cut in order to have more flexible work arrangements, such as full-time remote and hybrid work facilities arrangements, from their employers.” Employers also learned firsthand the limitations and benefits of a large-scale remote workforce including cost savings. This has forced engineering managers to consider how to integrate remote and hybrid corporate work facilities into the traditional workplace, post COVID-19. We examined the data on the dynamics of traditional, hybrid, and remote workplace facilities to determine the best default work facilities arrangement. While we suspected the traditional work facilities arrangement would be the least viable option, we were surprised to find the benefits of hybrid work facilities be so clearly dominant, that we consider it to be the default engineering workplace of the future. © 2022 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2022. All rights reserved.